The European Commission has approved a €103 million Dutch state aid scheme funding new vessels and retrofits powered by renewable methanol or hydrogen, targeting short-sea shipping in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub, with grants available 2027-2031. The scheme addresses capital cost, not the ongoing fuel premium: low-carbon methanol at roughly double conventional marine gasoil's price. It lands as EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime requirements tighten through 2031.

HD Hyundai Samho has delivered Jane Maersk, its first Very Large Ammonia Carrier, to Maersk Tankers in a shipyard handover, no cargo carried on this leg. The 93,000 cbm vessel, designed for both ammonia and LPG, is the first of several ordered in 2023, with Mitsui as co-investor. The delivery adds to HD Hyundai Samho's 22-vessel, $2.55 billion VLAC order backlog, distinct from ammonia-fuelled propulsion vessels.

Jilin Electric Power has shipped what's reported as the world's largest single green ammonia cargo, 3,750 tonnes, from its Da'an complex in Jilin to South Korea. The plant, EU RFNBO-certified and running on 800MW of wind and solar, produces up to 180,000 tonnes of ammonia annually with buyers already secured across Europe, Japan and Korea. The cargo adds to a cluster of ammonia milestones in Korea this month, alongside EXMAR's first commercial ammonia voyage.

Project CAPTURED, led by Singapore's Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, has secured two regulatory milestones for onboard carbon capture: formal EU ETS recognition allowing captured CO2 to be deducted from a vessel's emissions allowance, and in-principle IMO support for carbon mineralisation as permanent CO2 storage. The pilot achieved a 7.9% net GHG reduction. Unlike fuel-switching approaches, this addresses emissions from vessels still running on conventional fuel.

China has launched a Methanol Fuel Shipping Supply Chain Innovation Alliance with 20 members spanning shipping, ports, energy and equipment, including Sinopec, COSCO, PetroChina, Methanex and the Methanol Institute. No targets or financing were disclosed alongside the launch. It arrives as methanol newbuild orders have fallen sharply, from 149 in 2024 to just 4 in the first five months of 2026.

DP World's Americas ocean freight division will invest $1 million over four quarters in Hapag-Lloyd's Ship Green carbon insetting programme, expected to avoid 4,762 tonnes of CO2 through certified waste-based marine biofuel. Unlike offsetting, insetting reduces emissions directly within the same supply chain by replacing conventional fuel on the customer's own shipments, with savings tracked and allocated back to specific freight. A freight forwarder, not a shipping line, is

India's ACME Group has signed export deals with Japan's IHI Corporation and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical for 405,000 tonnes of green ammonia and 100,000 tonnes of green methanol annually, backed by subsidy mechanisms on both sides. The agreements sit under India's National Green Hydrogen Mission, giving lenders and investors a long-term demand signal for green hydrogen derivative production at commercial scale.

Singapore's Parliament has passed a motion backing an S$800 million research package, RIE2030, spanning AI and autonomy across aviation, maritime and land transport over the next five years. Within the maritime portion, funding is earmarked for alternative-fuel safety research, including leak detection tools, to support the shift to biofuel, methanol and ammonia bunkering. Mostly an AI and workforce story, but with a real, specific fuels-safety thread inside it.

Ocean Network Express has marked the maiden voyage of ONE Solidarity, a methanol- and ammonia-ready container ship, with its first call at Shekou, China. The vessel isn't running on either fuel yet; it's built with the flexibility to convert later, part of a wider industry trend of ordering dual-fuel-ready tonnage rather than committing fleets to a single alternative fuel pathway. A look at what "fuel-ready" really means, and why carriers are hedging their bets.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore issued methanol bunkering licences to Global Energy Trading, Golden Island, and PetroChina International (Singapore), effective 1 January 2026. The three were selected from 13 applicants through an evaluation covering supply chain reliability, operational readiness, safety systems, and the sustainability certification of the methanol supplied. The licences run for five years, to 31 December 2030, giving licensees a defined runway t